Death of a Jaded Samurai Read Online Free Page B

knows the phone numbers of you and every other woman in town. Anyway, I meant our students. Is anyone coming to class tonight?"
    Her jaw dropped open. "Excuse me? Walter was murdered, and you're worried about class attendance? We need to clean up and replace mats before we can even have a class. The cleanup crew is coming soon, and they need someone to lock up later."
    "They took our mats?" He stared. "Why would they do that?"
    "It's called evidence," she said. "All the blood is a biohazard, and the mats have to be specially taken care of. A lot of other things went to the lab. At least this way I don't have to clean up all the mess."
    Mick let out a long breath. His fingers drummed his left thigh, more nervous than he tried to let on. If he started to pace, she'd know to keep her distance.
    "You're right. Did you post a sign to say we're closed?"
    "On the front door. You walked right past it. I also changed the message on the answering machine and posted a message on our website and Facebook page." No concern. No compassion. Just commands. Demands. Ugh, why did she ever idolize him? In a bad situation, he folded and ran for the nearest coffee shop. Just like Thayer. She brushed that thought aside.
    "Did you call the students who normally come tonight?" he asked.
    Was he serious? "Only three. The rest called here to find out when the funeral is and make sure everyone else was okay."
    "No doubt Marion already told everyone what happened."
    Gilda shrugged. "So what if she did? That saved me some work."
    He wandered into the dojo and knelt. There were only half the pale-green tatami mats inside than there were that morning. "If we call right away, our supplier might be able to ship us new ones by Tuesday."
    "I already called," she said. "First of all, they don't have any in stock. They also want cash up front. It seems our credit is in question. Oh, and as of five, they closed for the long weekend."
    "Since when do we have bad credit?" He stood and ran a hand through his thick, black hair. "We've always paid them up front."
    "I don't know. Why don't you talk to them next week and straighten things out? They won't talk to me anymore. They want to talk to you."
    "Fine. I think you're overreacting. Things can't be that bad. I'm sure you can straighten it out just as well as I can." He rolled his eyes.
    "Trust me, I tried." When he headed for the changing area, Gilda stopped him. "Oh, I wouldn't go back there if I were you. It's not exactly clean."
    Mick went anyway. "What the bloody hell happened back here?"
    "Good choice of words. Offhand, I'd say a fight," she said and peered around him. "A pretty nasty one."
    He snorted. "Good guess, Sherlock. Now tell me who Walter fought with."
    Gilda wished she could. She didn't want to let on she suspected him. Actually, him, Erik, Razi, and Xavier—all the remaining black belts. Under the circumstances, she was wise to keep her mouth shut until the police could prove who killed Walter, since all four of them were capable of killing her with the flick of a pinkie finger.
    "Where are the changing room curtains?" Mick asked.
    Only two curtains remained on the floor. The rest were in police custody. To think the curtains were under arrest rather than being checked for evidence made her smile for a second before her eyes welled up again. "Thayer took them in for interrogation."
    "Funny. We'll have to replace them before we can reopen." He knelt to examine a spot of blood already smeared by the forensics crew's swabs. "We also need to mop the floors and what's left of the mats."
    "Like I said, Fabio called the biohazard team to come in and do a proper cleaning. We shouldn't even be back here. I only stayed until I could get hold of you."
    Mick kicked a bench, which dented the wall and sent more debris onto the tiles.
    Gilda thought something fell from beneath the bench onto the floor.
    "Why did this have to happen now? Yoshidaarrives on Tuesday for a training session. There's no way I can replace